Taking its toll: 14 million people diagnosed with cancer in 2012

The
medical scourge of the modern world, cancer - and all of its
permutations, is taking its global toll on humanity. The World Health
Organization says that 14 million were diagnosed with some form of
cancer in 2014, and that number is only set to rise. Worldwide cases of
cancer are expected to expand by 19.3 million people by the year 2025.

Cancer incidence, or the number of new cases each year has been increasing in most regions of the world. There remains "huge inequalities" between rich and poor countries.

Highlights

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Among the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide in men and women were lung, breast and colorectal cancers. It was determined that lung, liver and stomach cancers were the most common causes of cancer-related deaths.

The statistics are uniformly grim. The global death toll from cancer rose to 8.2 million in 2012. There were sharp rises in breast cancer as the condition grew in developing nations struggling to treat an illness driven by Western lifestyles.

Cancer deaths were up eight percent from 7.6 million in a previous survey in 2008, Breast cancer killed 522,000 women last year, which was up 14 percent in the same period. According to the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, "Breast cancer is also a leading cause of cancer death in the less developed countries of the world."

David Forman, head of IARC's Section of Cancer Information, says this was "partly because a shift in lifestyles is causing an increase in incidence, and partly because clinical advances to combat the disease are not reaching women living in these regions."

An estimated 14.1 million people developed cancer in 2012, up from 12.7 million in 2008. And 1.7 million women were newly diagnosed with breast cancer last year, up by more than 20 percent from 2008.

Called GLOBOCAN 2012, IARC's report gives the most up-to-date estimates for 28 different types of cancer in 184 countries.

IARC experts warn that they expect "a substantive increase" in cancer cases worldwide, with annual new cases predicted to rise to 19.3 million by 2025 as the global population both grows and ages.

In developing countries going through rapid societal and economic change, lifestyles found more often in richer, industrialized countries leads to a rising burden of cancers linked to reproduction, diet and hormones.

Cancer incidence, or the number of new cases each year has been increasing in most regions of the world. There remains "huge inequalities" between rich and poor countries.

While rates of new cancer cases are still highest in more developed regions, death rates are relatively much higher in less developed countries because people's tumors are often not detected and diagnosed early enough due to a lack of screening and access to treatment.

Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for March 2015
Universal: Scientists: That those involved in scientific research may serve the well-being of the whole human person.
Evangelization: Contribution of women: That the unique contribution of women to the life of the Church may be recognized always.

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